Ordo Templi Orientis PhenomenonCopyrights

Structure, Constitutions and Money

P.R. Koenig

Theodor Reuss
wrote a number of variant O.T.O. Constitutions — three in 1906 two in English and one in German , several more around 1910 and finally in 1917, he produced a "revised Constitution" which is almost identical to the two English versions of 1906.
In 1919 Crowley added several provisions for cameral amendments which were published in Equinox III,10: these are merely summaries with an added bit of gloss. In addition, Crowley's Libri LII, CI, CLXI, and CXCIV can be considered more descriptive documents rather than binding regulations. These Crowley Libri represent his vision of his O.T.O. Utopia, whereas Reuss had his own "Programme of Construction and Guiding Principles of the Gnostic Neo-Christians called O.T.O." (1920) and a Utopia as described in his "Parsival and the Graal Unveiled" (1914). [see hypertextlink above]

Reuss' and Crowley's Constitutions in reality never worked very well — (Karl Germer mostly ignored Crowley's). To become fully active, the old Constitution required 2000 O.T.O. members in any province, and to date, there has never been that many in any single country. The text contains several flaws, including provisions for consideration of different laws depending on which country the constitution is enacted in.
The new American "Caliphate"
(founded in 1977) has not made any fundamental revisions to it and its
present active form is its International Articles of Incorporation and
Bylaws (which can only be amended tri-camerally — i.e. Areopagus, Supreme
Council and "O.H.O." must all concur). [see below]

In regard to the office of X°, the Swiss O.T.O. considered Liber CXCIV
to be effective when there are 11 Profess Houses in a country. This was
the case in 1963 when Karl Germer died died ("Summarischer Bericht an SorA.·. A.·.Sascha betr. O.T.O. und Abtei Thelema", letter Hermann Joseph Metzger to Sascha Germer, no date, circa spring 1963). The Swiss have celebrated the Gnostic Mass since the early 1950s — each second and fourth Friday of the month they had O° initiations; at the first Friday I°; third Friday II°; and in the months with a fifth Friday they had III°, M.·. and P.·. M.·. initiations. Each Saturday the so-called Gnostic Sanctuary met in the Swiss Abbey of Thelema.

The rites of Crowley's O.T.O. are rooted in the rites of Masonry and other mystical and occult organizations, as listed in Liber LII. The reader will note the similarity of the rituals to simple Masonic rites. Generally the rituals mimic those published in Richard Carlile's "Manual of Freemasonry" (Reeves & Turner, London) but simply puffed up and amended to include Crowley's own passwords, grips and signs. An example of this puffing up by Crowley is perfectly shown in his IV° "pendant" to the III° in Liber CXCIV (which contains the "lost word"): one must ask what does the candidate of the IV° gain from the hail storm of titles that rain down upon him? — quite simply, these titles are meaningless serve no real or practical purpose. This has led to many heated discussions within modern O.T.O. groups, but without any alternatives for the leadership to take any new direction, they continue to use the old masonic based rituals (the Typhonian-O.T.O. is the one exception).

Crowley rewrote his rituals several times and during his sojurn in Detroit, Michigan (c. 1918), he received a number of complaints from Freemasons claiming that his O.T.O. rituals were too much like theirs. Further significant revisions were made to both the rituals and instructions by Crowley,some quite late versions remain in private collections and their content remains unpublished and unavailable to the more modern 'public'
Orders.

Another area of consideration, which often causes confusion, is why and how Crowley's Gnostic Mass is incorporated into the O.T.O. In the "Caliphate", standing as a Bishop through O.T.O. membership is appendant to the VII°. Crowley did not complete his own version of the ritual (only an outline and partial draft of the VII° survive). The current "Caliphate" version of the VII°, written by William Breeze (the current "Caliph"), is an elaboration of Crowley's draft version plus a word per word copy of Reuss' VII°-ritual. Initiation rituals Minerval through VI° were completed in Crowley's hand, and those are the ones the "Caliphate" have continually used. The VII°-XI° were not completed in final form by Crowley, although some ancillary rituals exist in those degrees. However, the "Caliphate" did develop their own version of the X°, at the time it was written they were probably unaware of the existence of the Reuss version of the X°.

In respect of the IX° there is a question as to whether IX°s have the right to initiate or just to "recognize" other IX°s. There is an oral tradition that all IX°s have the power to initiate, and that the IX° members also have the duty and power to reconstitute the Order should there be a crisis of leadership. This may have some relation to the IX° "part proprietorship" of the Order specified in Liber LII and Reuss' 1917 Constitution but there is no documented evidence of the IX° powers in either of the Crowley or Reuss O.T.O.s.
In 1983 the "Caliphate" decided that the IX° level is non-political, being an autocratic structure and thus making the qualifications of the IX° only significant and of interest to the IX° himself (and other IX°s).

Structure of William Breeze's 'Caliphate'

The following part was not written by Peter-R. Koenig, but by
Anthony Naylor before he lost his case against the
'Caliphate'

The 'Caliphate' O.T.O. was originally structured to provide for the
voting members of the corporation (Ninth Degree) to elect a Board of
Directors ("Supreme Council") which in turn appointed the officers: the
corporate president ('Caliph'), the corporate treasurer ("Grand
Treasurer General") and corporate secretary ("Grand Secretary
General"). From and after March 21, 1979 when the original Articles of
Incorporation were filed, the 'Caliphate' has continued to
systematically implement the Constitutional provisions of the Crowley
literature. Thus, the 'Caliphate' has three internal categories of
membership, each constituting a "triad" as follows:

While there are some fine distinctions, this presents the basic
internal structure of the 'Caliphate' from a corporate governance
aspect.

When it incorporated in 1979, the voting members elected their own
number to the Board of Directors, who in turn appointed other Ninth
Degrees. As the 'Caliphate' expanded, the Ninth Degrees slowly
delegated their power as voting members, always maintaining ultimate
authority within the group.

Indeed, when Grady McMurtry died in 1985, his successor, William
Breeze, was elected by the voting members pursuant to such a provisio
as the voting members authority.

Commencing 1991, six years after his election as the president of the
OTO. Inc. Breeze began to alter the Bylaws, slowly installing himself
as the absolute ruler. William Heidrick assisted Breeze in this
consolidation of power and together with the then corporate secretary
Lynn (Helena) Scriven (wife of the 1996-X°, David Scriven), all power
within the 'Caliphate' began to transfer to these three people. These
changes to the Bylaws installed Breeze as the sole decision making
authority within the group, and no attempts have been made to comply
with corporate formalities as required by Californian Law.
In 1999, Helena Lynne Scriven resigned and was replaced by the German Marcus
Jungkurth.

In 1996, Breeze, Heidrick and the Ninths, created a subordinate
organization called "Ordo Templi Orientis USA" (hereinafter "OTO-USA").
The stated purpose of this alteration was to create a separate legal
entity for the United States of America, with similar separate entities
to then exist in various countries throughout the world. It was stated
that the 'Caliphate' (OTO Inc.) was to remain the 'parent' corporation
of all 'national' corporations. However, unknown to the members of the
'Caliphate' at the time of the formation of this subsidiary
corporation, Breeze and Heidrick intended to seize control of the
'Caliphate' (OTO Inc.) by transferring all, or substantially all, of
the 'Caliphate's membership and day to day activities to its new
subsidiary "OTO-USA" leaving the 'Caliphate' (OTO Inc.) a mere
corporation shell, whose assets and income could be converted or spent
without the knowledge or consent of the members of the 'Caliphate'.

The major sources of income for the 'Caliphate', prior to 1996, were
its income from dues paying members throughout the United States and
the world, and from certain copyright royalties claimed by Breeze (and
his 'Caliphate').

After the formation of the subsidiary "OTO-USA" in 1996, Breeze,
Heidrick, and the Ninths, authorized the 'Caliphate' (OTO Inc.) to
retain all copyright income, together with a percentage of all dues
paid by the rank and file members of "OTO-USA", all without the
knowledge of the rank and file members of "OTO-USA". The 'Caliphate'
(OTO Inc.) takes this income based upon an intercompany agreement
between 'OTO Inc.' and "OTO-USA", which agreement has been structured
and approved only by Breeze, Heidrick and the Ninths.

After the 1996 subsidiary arrangement, the assets of the 'Caliphate'
consist primarily of rare books and manuscripts, all of which can
easily transported out of the jurisdiction of the United States on the
pretext that they belong to the "international" corporation, or
copyrights. No accounting or detailed listing of these assets have been
made available to the voting members. Said assets are described as the
"Archives" and are valued by Heidrick at 299,273 US dollars as shown on
February 29, 2000. The Crowley copyrights are valued at 1,250,00 US
dollars. [see link below]

Breeze currently collects a "ministerial allowance" of approximately
12,230 US dollars per annum, and while he lived in Austin, Texas, the
'Caliphate' paid his rent of approximately 12,743 US dollars. In
addition, a substantial portion of the 'Caliphate's travel expenses of
24,295 US dollars are spent for the benefit of Breeze.

Activites such as self-dealing [see chapter on the Copyrights] are
disclosed to the governing group known as the Areopagus. However, the
current Bylaws do not give this group any authority within the
'Caliphate' other than in a "consulting" capacity. Further, those
members of this Areopagus generally give an open ended proxy to Breeze
based on his representations to them, such that at any given Areopagus
meeting, Breeze holds sufficient proxies to cast a majority vote.

On or about April 29, 2000, it was disclosed (to the Areopagus) that
Breeze with the assistance of Heidrick and Jungkurth had formed
numerous corporations in Europe and in the South pacific, all without
the knowledge or approval of the voting members and without approval or
consent of an independent Board of Directors. Seemingly, the true
purpose of forming these additional foreign corporations is to permit
Breeze to conceal assets, pretend to legitimacy under the color of Law, and
to append additional monies of the 'Caliphate' under such guises.